Nightmares
by MXXYMX
Summary: Laslow's always had problems with nightmares - growing up in a dying world will do that to you. However, they've never been this much of a problem before - he's never had anyone sharing his bed.


Ylisstol was in flames. Laslow whirled around in the city square he found himself in as he struggled to take in his surroundings. All around him he could hear the crackling of a burning city and the occasional crash when a building came tumbling down. He couldn't see any people from where he stood but he heard the sounds of them all around him. Wails of pain or sorrow, shrieks of fear, and occasionally terse shouted orders where someone had managed to maintain some semblance of military order amongst all the chaos. And undercutting it all was the droning, seemingly endless moaning of the Risen. Oh Naga above, the Risen. In the middle of the night tens of thousands of them had come, breaking into the city and destroying all they found - Ylisse had always prided itself on the openness of its capital city but the lack of solid defences had doomed the attempt at an organized resistance before it even started. Inigo knew the war hadn't been going well, but for a horde of Risen to appear in the heart of Ylisse…

He shuddered and cast a wild glance around. Evidently the square had been the scene of one of the running battles that comprised what little resistance the city had been able to put together - the bodies of civilians, militia, and soldiers alike were scattered about, along with a depressingly small number of Risen corpses. He was unarmed and unarmored, but perhaps he could take a sword off of one of the soldiers and find some place where his skills could come in handy or fight his way back to the palace. How had he gotten separated from everyone else in the first place? Shaking the thought out of his head he started to move over to the nearest soldier when something caught his eye. Although it was past midnight the flames of the burning city lent a ruddy glow to the clouds overhead - the clouds… something was wrong with the clouds. They were churning from the great plumes of smoke and ash rising from the city, but there was something else. Something moving with purpose.

As he realized what it was Laslow felt his blood turn to ice, seconds before the titanic form of Grima the dark dragon twisted out of the clouds. He heard himself scream in horror at the sight and somehow, impossibly, the dark god seemed to hear him over the cacophony of the burning city; slowly, almost contemptuously turning its head towards him. Six massive eyes, each larger than he was tall, stared down at him as the monster turned its attention to him. Laslow felt his legs grow weak, falling to his knees with tears in his eyes as a wave of fear and despair washed over him. Grima laughed, a deep, dark, horrid sound that seems to shake the city around Inigo to its bones. Then it opened its maw, and Grima's breath spewed forth.

As the wave of livid dark energy rolled out towards him, what little strength Inigo had left in him failed and he fell to the ground weeping. They had failed. Grima had been brought to the world. Everything he and his friends had fought for, all the desperate last stands, and all the sacrifices that had allowed them to get this far - all for naught. Grima and his endless hordes of Risen would roll over the entire world and snuff out every living thing they could find. The storm front of Grima's breath was only seconds away. Inigo closed his eyes and waited for the end to roll over him and-

He shot upright in his bed, gasping for breath and covered in a cold sweat.

 _Damn it_ , he thought to himself, burying his face in his hands. _Grima's gone. Robin killed him. He can't do anything to me anymore._ He knew all of this was true - he was there when Robin killed the dark reflection of himself serving as a vessel for Grima; and yet... here he was gasping for breath and shaking uncontrollably, his guts clenching in terror. _Besides - I'm in an entirely new world now. I have a new name and a new life and a wife and -_

 _My wife!_

He looked over and flinched as he saw Peri looking up at him. "I'm sorry for waking you up, my love" he muttered to her, reaching out to take her hand and stroke it. "I... just had a bad dream. It's nothing to worry about."

At this Peri sat up as well, wrapping her arms around her husband's shoulders. "Lazzy you've been having these nightmares the whole time I've known you! You never break a sweat when we're out killing people, but now you're trembling like a leaf. It's obviously not nothing. Just tell me what's wrong - you know I'll protect you from whatever it is."

Laslow shuddered out a breath before embracing his wife in turn. "I know, dearest. It's just that... It's just that I promised that I would never speak of it. I -" _Damn it, he really_ did _want to tell her._ She was his _wife_ for Naga's sake!He'd always had these problems, memories of the dark times before Naga sent them back in time weighing heavily on his mind and nightmares preventing him from getting a full night's sleep as often as not. And since he'd come to this world with Selena and Odin things had gotten even worse - neither of them were particularly good at lending an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on (although each for very different reasons) and this whole time he'd been forced to keep these problems bottled up inside of him.

"What's wrong baby? You know you can tell me anything" said Peri, shaking Laslow out of his reverie. Seeing the worry etched into his wife's beautiful features, Laslow felt the last of his willpower fail him.

 _Damn the others. I need to talk to somebody about this. And if I can't trust my own wife then who can I trust? If they ever find out then... well I'll deal with that when I need to. I'm going to tell her._ Laslow took a moment to pause and collect himself. "You're right dearest" he told her. "It's just that..." he took a deep breath. "I know I may sound crazy but everything I'm about to tell you is true, I swear it. No matter how far-fetched it sounds I promise it's all true."

Peri drew back slightly, cocking her head and staring at Laslow for a second before smiling. "I know you would never lie to me!" she exclaimed happily. "And not just because you know I'd kill you if you ever did."

Despite himself Laslow chuckled. _That's the Peri that I know and (somehow) fell in love with_. "Alright," he said to his wife, "Where to start..."

"You know how Selena, Odin, and I always say that we're from far away? That's... mostly true. We're" - he paused - "We're from another world. The world we grew up in was... dark. An evil god named Grima had been awakened and was destroying everything." With each sentence Laslow could feel his words getting more manic, a lifetime of suppressed trauma trying to force its way out. "Our parents were great heroes and they tried to stop the awakening but they failed! Grima's faithful woke him up and he summoned countless Risen to destroy everything and we had to watch our parents die one by one and we were powerless to do anything!" He had started shaking by now and could feel tears start to flow down his face. "And by the time we were old enough to fight it was too late and everything was dying and... and at the end we could sometimes see Grima flying over us, laughing at our pain and killing whatever he wanted! We couldn't kill a god! We couldn't do anything! We -" he trailed off, wiping the tears from his face.

"Laslow..."

He looked over and saw tears running down his wife's face - evidently she had started crying somewhere along. "I never knew... You should have told me sooner I -" All of a sudden Peri's face, still streaked with tears, contorted into a mask of rage and hatred that sent chills down Laslow's spine.

" _Where!?_ " She shouted. "Where's Grima!? I don't care if he's a god or in a different world or whatever. Nobody hurts my hubby like that! Tell me where he is and I promise I'll find him. I'll make him _bleed_ for you!"

The vehemence in her voice made Laslow shudder, but somehow simultaneously spread a warm glow through him. "I have no doubt in my mind that you would, my love," he murmured, reaching out to hold her hand once more. "But it's fine. Grima's dead. He - I saw him die."

"But I thought you said-"

"I did - but there was another goddess. The Divine Dragon Naga," Laslow quickly interjected. "At the very end of things, just before Grima's final victory, she used the last of her power to send me and Odin and Selena and all of our friends back to before Grima was ever awakened. We were there to help our parents that time. I was there at the final battle - where we finally killed Grima. It was actually Selena's father who landed the killing blow." Laslow chuckled grimly. "Grima's dead and that's all behind me but... I guess I just haven't been able to move on. To recover."

For a moment all was still. Then, Peri launched herself at Laslow, squeezing him in a crushing embrace as she bore him down to the bed. She kissed him fiercely, her tears mingling with his. "I'm here now, Lazzy" she said. "I love you and I'm gonna help you get better. I don't care how long it takes I'm gonna stick with you and protect you. And if any big bad monster or god or anything tries to hurt you it's going to have to go through me first!"

Laslow felt himself relax in a way that he had only felt on one or two other occasions in his entire life. "I know, my love" he said, gently stroking her back. "And I love you. And somehow..."

"Somehow I think the nightmares are going to start getting better soon."


End file.
